The invention constitutes an improvement on the prior art relating to pit cooking and smoking apparatus, and more particularly is an improvement on the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,211 to Ellis. In the Ellis patent, smoldering hickory wood or equivalent solid fuel is supported on a tray or pan near and above an electrical heating element in the bottom portion of a cooking pit or enclosure. The food is supported well above the smoldering fuel on a rack in the upper region of the pit. The fuel tray in the patent is bodily supported on bimetallic legs which expand and contract to move the tray and solid fuel cyclically toward and away from the fixed underlying electrical heating element. This, in turn, automatically regulates the burning of the wood fuel and the emission of smoke and avoids the fuel bursting into an open flame, which is undesirable.
The present invention improves on the mode of operation in the Ellis patent and renders the apparatus more reliable and efficient and more economical to construct. The necessity for the bimetal support elements in the patent is dispensed with in this invention by the provision of a balanced "seesaw" fuel support near and above the heating element adapted to hold roughly balanced wood fuel pieces on opposite sides of a fulcrum. This results in a new mode of operation where the fuel components on opposite sides of the fulcrum are alternately subjected to heating and cooling periods, making the burning slower and more controllable than in the prior art.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.